Navigate:

Masters of the 2016 candidate domains

The ownership of most domains is publicly listed on several online indexes, including Whois.com. Yet anyone can pay a little extra to own it anonymously — the cyber equivalent of an unlisted number in the phone book.

That makes it harder to learn what a candidate’s intentions are for running. Forward-thinking campaigns usually pay extra to anonymize the registration of whatever they buy so as not to telegraph a planned run before it is properly announced.

Text Size

-

+

reset

There is a risk to candidates in not addressing the issue of their own name early in a political career. The owner of TimKaine.com is masked on Whois, but whoever has it makes it bounce automatically to the Facebook page of Jamie Brown Radtke, who lost to former Virginia Gov. George Allen in this year’s GOP Senate primary. Radtke told POLITICO she doesn’t know why that is the case and isn’t responsible for it.

Harris said it’s less laborious, faster, and usually cheaper, to just pay up.

“In my experience, it’s much better just to buy the domain names, even though you’re kind of giving these people a leg up,” said Harris, who helped Huntsman buy JonHuntsman.com last year. “It’s a quicker, speedier process to get it all done.”

Frequently, Ross said, owners want more than the name is worth. After then-North Carolina Sen. John Edwards was picked as Kerry’s running mate in 2004, Ross tried to acquire KerryEdwards.com from a person named Kerry Edwards who had it. They offered “thousands of dollars” but the owner wanted more; the campaign eventually dropped the effort and never used the domain.

Many squatters claim they buy domain names to prevent mischief-makers from doing so.

“I became a fan and bought that domain on a whim just in case [Mitt] Romney didn’t win,” said Chris Morris, 46, of Nashville, who owns McDonnell2016.com. “My intention was to reserve it for [Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell] or drive traffic to his site.”

Some squatters have been waiting a long time for payouts or attention that very likely will never come. Allen Craddock, 44, a lawyer from Austin, Texas, paid $1,000 from another squatter for HillaryForPresident.com in 2004 and spent the 2008 campaign season expecting an offer from her campaign. It didn’t happen.

“I thought it would be a good investment,” Craddock said, noting he still might hear from the campaign if Clinton runs in 2016.

Similarly, several cybersquatters who grabbed Romney variants are equally disappointed. Joe Decesare, 31, of Jensen Beach, Fla., went on a $500 buying binge in 2010 and snapped up Mitt2012.com among others.

“I contacted the Romney campaign but they already had MittRomney.com so they didn’t respond to me,” he said. “I haven’t had any political candidates contact me, actually. But, yeah, I think it’s got to have some value to somebody possibly.”

Web domains for 2016 are a little premature. Why would one automatically assume that Obama won't pull a "Morsi" or a "Chavez" by 2016? Such a preemptive move would not surprise many, and with a Democrat Senate it would be unstoppable..